FORM-Idea

Historically, cities, which become cultural beacons, tell us something about the times in which they dominate.  Be it Paris in the twenties, at a time when France became a home for many African American exiles eager to experience the climate of racial tolerance the city offered at the time.  Or post war New York when the city and to a certain extent the country at large offered a home to many Europeans fleeing the catastrophic aftermath of two successive world wars or London twice, in the swinging sixties and once again pre Brexit when a younger generation from across Europe came together to push back against artistic boundaries.

Now the city which is producing some of the most ground-breaking art in the world can be found further east. That city without doubt would be South Korea’s Seoul.  Seoul, at the moment, seems to effortlessly produce some of the most startling and original artistic work in the world across almost all creative mediums.   Be it the breath-taking success of boy band BTS, or the Oscar dominance of the film Parasite or the staggering viewing figures for the uber violent series, Squid Games, Netflix’s mega hit, South Korea’s creative impact on the world at the moment seems to know no bounds and its capital Seoul, is very much dominating our cultural landscape. London once again plays host to the annual K music festival.  It is a festival which presents some of the most innovative musicians playing anywhere in the world today.

Seoul | Photo by Yohan Cho on Unsplash 

One of the early concerts in this lovely festival featured the astonishing Dongyang Gozupa, a group who defy description.   A wonderful eclectic mix of heavy medal and traditional Korean music, Dongyang Gozupa in many ways invent their own musical genre.   Led by the surreally beautiful lead drummer Dohyuk Jang, accompanied by Eunhwa Yun and Minhwi Han, the group live up to their name, which translates to “eastern high frequency”.  To say they play music which you would never have heard before is an understatement.  Heavy metal yes, but heavy metal as you have never heard it before.   And yet where a western band would be content to simply play an ear shattering set, Dongyana Gozupa transcend this and combine power with heart stopping beautiful melodies.  Watching them play as part of the festival felt like watching an embryonic eastern Led Zepplin but a Led Zepplin which had been created at some time in the distant future and transported back in time.  The band is a wonderful fusion of sounds.

Sinnoi like Dongyang Gozupa is also a band which defies categorization.    They would perhaps nominally be called ambient Jazz but to label them as such would be to do them a huge disservice  since they too cannot easily be categorized.   With their haunting vocals, sang by Bora Kim, accompanied by the band’s leader Wonsool Lee, Go Dam and Jeong-seok Lee’s ambient sounds,  they produce ethereal music which also seems otherworldly, like heavenly beings who have simply fallen to earth to entertain us for a brief moment before departing once again.  Their set at London’s K-Music festival will only increase their already global fan base.      

So what does South Korea’s artistic dominance tell us about the times in which we live?   Maybe that we are open enough to not only accept but also embrace art, which comes from a country, we actually know little about.   Perhaps it also tells us that in these increasingly polarised times, we are far more open than we at times we might suspect or that as we appear to pull apart throughout the world we are in fact secretly pulling closer together.   Whatever the lessons are for this phenomenon it feels like a welcome antidote to the west’s worrying shift to xenophobia, a move which has of course been dominating many UK newspaper headlines.  And perhaps this trend also suggests that lying just out of sight of these very same headlines is a tiny ray of light. 

Upcoming performances to look out for at this year’s K-Music festival include Dalium, a Seoul based duo whose work challenge the possibility of Korea’s traditional instruments, the gayageum and the geomungo.  Instruments which musicians’ Ha Suyean and Hwang Hyeyoung use to create other worldly sounds.  The festival concludes with collaboration between the acclaimed Soojin Suh Coloris trio and jazz superstar Camilla George.  A fitting conclusion to a festival which seeks to challenge musical possibilities and by doing so brings with it a welcomed warm light to our increasingly dark autumnal evenings.   

form-idea.com, London | Author: Beverly Andrews